Once upon a time…….OK, actually last night ….…V and I are out to dinner.
We’re discussing computer dating……something neither of us ever did. Luckily. Since everything about us is completely different and we have nothing in common, no computer—and no human—would ever put us together.
This line of conversation leads to me ask a potentially lethal question: “Which of my many bad habits would you put at the top of your list?”
V, almost always the gentleman, saves our marriage finesses the question with a diplomatic answer about how he’s learned to accept all my bad habits as part of me.
I’m mentally composing my own list (and a future blog post) of HIS bad habits. But when he asks, I give him back the same answer— since I don’t want to leave the restaurant before having dessert.
Even with dessert, we’re home before 9 p.m.
Even with watching Tivo’d football highlights, V is asleep by 9:30.
A lark and a night-owl; just one of our many differences. For people who make strange bedfellows, bedtime is a conundrum that requires compromise.
For years I thought V was faking, but trust me, it’s true—-he is asleep the instant his head hits the pillow. Or even sooner.
And this is one habit I can’t tolerate. It’s high on my list—with a bullet……and I’m jealous. I require relaxation by reading….for a few minutes, or a few hours. And since V is invariably and instantly asleep, I can’t read with the lamp and I have to use one of those annoying clip-on lights.
So last night he’s asleep, as my night is just starting. I’m involved with emails and writing and contending with a technological breakdown on my blog that I could ignore and go to sleep but instead I persist, pushing to the back of my mind the promise I made to myself a few hours ago after reading a post by Arianna Huffington recommending women make a resolution to get a full night’s sleep every night for a month.
Finally around 2 a.m., by the light of my cellphone, I guide myself to bed……..And I get within 3 feet of the bed when I remember something I forgot and go back to my desk where I am still sitting at 4 a.m. when I hear a noise in another part of the house.
It can’t be the cat since she’s on my lap. I get up to check and in the kitchen I find V making the coffee.
Which is one of his habits I actually LIKE.
And since he’s already up, I get to read with the light on……
…..and somehow they manage to live happily…….ever after.
Ruthie says
I love this blog! Especially because I have insomnia and have major SLEEP ENVY because my husband is storing withing minutes while I listen to podcasts on my Ipod for often hours…
Lynn says
I was laughing out loud with this one! I can SO relate. It often takes me hours to wind down and fall asleep. In the last few years, I went to bed before midnight maybe 5 times. Even though I may put myself into my bed before midnight…I tend to watch the clock as it ticks 2am…3am. I also have sleep envy for those who are asleep the moment their head hits the pillow. How have they found their “off” switch and I at 40 yrs old have yet to find mine? Oh, and on planes too! I watch the passengers who close their eyelids and are asleep while I fidget, with leg cramps! That all said, I love my quiet time after my family is in bed. –love the peaceful solitude…(and there is coffee to get us through when we finally fall asleep and have to wake up; but I have to make it myself!)
Stephanie says
It is in men’s DNA to be able to fall asleep in a nano second….
Every man I’ve been married to (all 3) could fall asleep whenever and wherever……
I was envious at first but figured out that there is a “hormonal blocker” that doesn’t permit us that luxury of instant napping/sleeping….
I’m over it….
When I was a widow, I slept 2-3 hours each night…..wouldn’t take anything to help me sleep even though everyone said that I should….
I knew it would work itself out…..
When my present husband moved in, it still took me over 2 years to adjust to a somewhat normal sleeping pattern…
Now…..we crawl into bed every night together with our books….of course he’s “out” first and then I will read for as long as it takes to make me sleepy…..
I love to read late because it takes my mind away from what went on during the day…..it’s a wonderful escape….
Darryle Pollack says
This is SO funny! Obviously a Mars/Venus thing.
I could have written all of your comments–I also refuse to take anything to help me and watching other people instantly fall asleep on planes makes me crazy. It never occurred to me to use an Ipod–but I don’t know what I’d do without my stack of books.
At least V doesn’t snore.